A Declaration of Rangependence
by Tiffsababe
Summary: Ranger mulls the meaning behind freedom, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights on the 4th of July. Rated T for language.


**Disclaimer: I do not own nor do I profit from janet Evanonvich's characters.**

**Happy 4th of July. I'm trying to get this to post before midnight, hopefully I make it!  
**

The annual Rangeman Fourth of July Picnic this year was one for the record books. We had managed almost 100% paticipation, _almost!_ The only party poopers were a still hospitalized Brett, who had managed to have a skip hit him with a truck, breaking his pelvis in two spots, and his two guards, Rodriguez and Sabo. Neither of them really liked big gatherings and jumped at the chance to skip the party. We had transformed the empty lot next to the Rangeman building on Haywood, into a giant party zone. It helped that I owned said lot and kept it unchanged, not only to have a security buffer between my building and the neighbors to our East, but it afforded us a place to have our annual picnic.

We had all participated in the usual watermelon eating contest, it was a tie between Hal and Cal. The hot dog eating contest, which Lula won, out eating Woody by two full dogs. Not surprisingly, my Babe won the pie eating contest. How she managed to inhale an entire pie in less than 30 seconds is beyond me, but she managed it. Holding up her little trophy, her face still covered in cherry pie was worth the whole gross out factor. But after the contests were won and our food eaten, it was time for a little fun Rangeman style.

Watching my men run around in board shorts, no shirts, brandishing water guns, chasing after Babe was enough to make me break my 'observe only' rule at parties. Her squeals of laughter, mixed with my mens' was enough to make me relent and join in on the fun. I snatched one of Santos' fully charged water cannons from him and turned it on the two men leading the charge against my Babe, Tank and Bobby.

Catching Bobby fully in the face with a deluge of water was enough to stop him in his tracks and stare at me dumbfounded. "Ranger? What the hell man?" He choked out after spitting up a lung full of water.

"Just evening the odds, Brown." He made to turn his water gun on me, but I was too quick and ducked behind a distracted Woody.

I dashed behind a group of my men chatting and snuck up on an unsuspecting Tank, catching him just as I had Brown. "Shit!" Tank nearly fell over himself as he tried to evade my direct hit. "That's cheating Man." He shook himself like a wet dog and aimed for me. Dodging the weak stream his water gun was producing was an easy feat.

Listening for my Babe's laughter, I soon found her hiding behind a tree along the fence line. I ran and covered her body with mine as we were sprayed by multiple sources.

"Carlos! What are you doing?" Stephanie giggled, wiping water from her eyes.

"Babe. Like I told Brown, just evening the odds." She laughed out loud and made to shoot Santos who was trying to flank us. His shout and subsequent retreat was enough to make me smile. "Nice shot."

"Hey, I learned from the best." She taunted me, winking.

"Babe."

We managed to hold them off long enough that the offending army of Rangemen eventually gave up after getting soaked. Gradually one by one, they gave up and sat by watching the survivors take fire from my Babe and I. Over time, our ammo ran out, as did theirs. My Babe and I collapsed on the ground panting from the exertion, and uncontrolled laughter on her part. Thinking back, I hadn't had fun like this since I was a teen, and even then it wasn't clean cut fun like this.

After cleaning up our mess, and disposing of the last of the uneaten food, we all settled on our blankets to listen to Binkie read the Declaration of Independence. I watched as the men around us, my men, my Babe's Merry Men, listen intently to those powerful words.

"_When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation._"

"_We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness._

_That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security._"

"_Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world._

_He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good._

_He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them._

_He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only._

_He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures._

_He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness of his invasions on the rights of the people._

_He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within._

_He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands._

_He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers._

_He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries._

_He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance._

_He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures._

_He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power._

_He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:_

_For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:_

_For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:_

_For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:_

_For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:_

_For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:_

_For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:_

_For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies_

_For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:_

_For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever._

_He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us._

_He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people._

_He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation._

_He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands._

_He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions._

_In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people."_

_"Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends."_

_"We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."_

Surpringly there wasn't a man seated who didn't thank God for the signers of the Declaration. They had laid the ground work for a fledgling country, a country of free men and women. They had flat out told England that they were claiming their rights as humans to have their own lives as they saw fit. He went on to read the United States Bill of Rights. I personally liked the second amendment, explaination self evident, need I say more?

_A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed._

As much as I like the second, I absolutely hated the eighth amendment.

_Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. _

I knew of several people who had been released from Jail after their bail had been set to a somewhat low amount, even though the crimes they committed were heinous. Take for instance the case of Darrin Todd. He had slashed his business partner within an inch of his life with a letter opener and bilked over two hundred people out of their life savings in some Ponzi scheme. He had been granted a measley 1.5 million dollar bail due to it being his first offense. Thankfully, Les Sebring, and not Vinney Plum, had been the one to bail his ass out of jail. It was only yesterday when my men and I finally picked him up for being a FTA.

Unfortunately, Binkie was the one who ended up getting the short end of the stick and ended up splattered on the front grill of Todd's F-350 at 40 miles an hour. He returned the favor by pulling his sidearm and pumping three bullets into the skips shoulder, effectively stopping the truck. Of course, getting to beat the shit out of him after pulling him free from the truck was quite the thrill, even if Trenton PD thought we had been "slightly excessive in the show of force", according to Big Dog. Screw 'em. In my opinion, if the FTA's man enough to ram into one of my men, then he's damn well man enough to take a beating for it. Period.

Darrin Todd and people like him, criminals willing to harm others just to maintain their lifestyle, should never be given the opportunity to have a get out of jail card, regardless if it's free or not. People like them are responsible for injuring my Babe more times than I care to remember, so much so, I have lost count.

_BUT,_ I have to realize that no plan, no idea and no supposed 'right', would fit every situation perfectly. Nothing is fool proof. There would always be an exception to the rule, whether I wanted there to be or not.

I realized that Binkie had finished reading and applause had filled the air. I pushed my thoughts to the back of my head to mull over at a later date, as I wrapped my arms around my Babe. Drawing her close I breathed deeply the scent of her shampoo and I grinned into her wild curls. "Babe. You almost ready for the fireworks?"

"You bet your Batarang Batman." She teased and spun in my arms to look at me face to face. She grew quiet and thoughtful for a moment before speaking in a hushed tone. "You know, I was thinking while Binkie was reading. I really thought about what it means to be free and what it means to have rights that others in this world don't have."

"Yeah?" I asked, brushing a stray curl from her face. "What's that?"

"I have the freedom to live where I want, work whatever job I want, have a group of my very own minions namely the Merry Men, live in my very own Batcave _and_ love my very own Batman. What else could a girl want?"

"Babe. What about Tastey Kakes everyday?"

"That too, Batman. But seriously, I feel sorry for others in this world who don't have the luxury of being able to decide anything for themselves. It demeaning and demoralizing. I just wish others in this world had the same opportunities that we have here in America. What can I do to fix that, Carlos?"

"Babe. You can't change the world yourself, it just isn't humanly possible. But there are a few things you can do to help those who are putting themselves on the line everyday to make that a reality." I paused to gauge her reaction. "You can help by supporting our troops. Sending care packages to our soldiers gives them the little boost of confidence and love that they use to fuel themselves for another day of fighting for the freedom of others." I pointed to Zip and Zero. "Both Zip and Zero, collect school supplies to send out of country to be donated to children who are fighting for a chance to attend school like any normal American child."

"So little things can help?" She asked, a little daunted by my examples.

"Babe. Anything you can do will help. I received a call from our local chapter of the USO last week, looking for donations and volunteers. Maybe I can call their director and see what I can do to help them out. Would you like to coordinate it from there?"

Her beaming smile told me all I needed to know about her answer. "I'd love to!"

"Consider it done." I heard the first explosion to our right and I spun us around to watch the fireworks show in it's entirety. "Happy Fourth of July, Babe."

"Happy Fourth of July, Carlos."

**A/N: So after writing this I felt it was necessary for me to emphasize the fact that we as a nation have the extraordinary opportunity to share what we know and love about democracy. Yes, I know. Our system is not perfect. I completely agree that it is flawed, in more ways that one. But you have to admit, the founders of this country never saw coming what has happened to us in the last 236 years. **


End file.
